Budding Warmth
by Picandy
Summary: When Misaki was little, she had several encounters with the ever-so-uncaring Kyoya Ootori. He was one of her few friends, other than her twin sister, and Misaki was determined to make sure he didn't run away. (a sort of prequel to Mischievous Affection, consisted of Misaki's and Kyoya's interactions when they were young)


**Hello! This is the prequel to one of my other stories-in-progress, Mischievous Affection. Now that I think about it, none of these stories are necessary to read with each other, but this story does hold a few spoilers. A lot of spoilers. **

**Also, the beginning is just the scene from the sixth chapter of MisAff~ **

**I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. If I did... well, let's just leave it at that.**

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Chapter 1

~Misaki~

"Misaki-chaaaan?" my mother called out in her bubbly voice, "We're here!"

My head jerked up as I noticed that the car was in front of a mansion. It looked like it was about the same size as our house...

I got up and followed my parents, not even bothering to pay attention to where we were going. They stopped walking suddenly, and I almost bumped into them.

"Oh, hello, Ootori-san!" my mother said ecstatically, "Thank you so much for inviting us! We are so delighted!"

"Oh, it's not problem..."

I tuned out the conversation, and I thought I could get away with it until Mom asked, "What do you think, Misaki?"

"Huh?" I looked up at the three adults who were looking at me, blushing.

"Oh, poor thing. You're probably hungry," my mom smiled, "How about you go and find someone your age to talk to? Adults must be pretty boring. Go on," she prodded.

Looking around, I could only see a handful of children my age. I sighed and left my parents to find someone to talk to. Eventually, I came upon a brown-haired girl who was about my height. I walked up to her and stuck out my hand, "Hello! I'm Misaki. What's your name?"

She lightly touched her hand to mine, as if I had a disease and she didn't want to touch me, "My name is Chikako Adachi, daughter of Akio Adachi, CEO of the Adachi Entertainment. If you don't mind me asking, what is your surname?"

"Erm," I stuttered slightly, "H-hisakawa. What does that have to do with anything?"

Her expression immediately became repulsed, "Hisakawa, as in Hisakawa Production Company."

I nodded slowly.

Chikako lifted her chin and walked away, brushing up against me, "Sorry, Hisakawa-san. I must depart. It was a pleasure chatting with you."

"Uhh..."

Looks like I needed to find another person my age... Break a leg, Misaki!

That's when I saw him.

His midnight black hair was combed to the side. He wore glasses, and he was pretty tall in my opinion. Really, why couldn't I have a growth spurt yet? It was sort of getting annoying how I was shorter than everyone else...

I went to him and asked, "What's your name?"

He plastered on a fake, plastic smile, "Kyoya Ootori. What's yours?"

I was about to say my real name, like I normally do. Then I realized; what if this boy has the same reaction that Chikako had? That would be horrible! I didn't know that names could be so terrifying...

"Aki-chan. I'm Aki-chan."

"What's your real name?" he inquired.

"Aki-chan!" I nodded, clarifying. See, he wasn't scared! Thank goodness.

Kyoya sighed in annoyance, "Where are your parents?"

"They're over..." I turned around and was about to point to where I saw them last, but they weren't there. I shrugged, "They're somewhere."

"They shouldn't have left a young child like you by herself," said Kyoya.

"What?!" I pouted, "I am NOT a young child! ...I'm ten!"

He pointed out, "You're still younger than me."

I glared at him, "Oh, fine." Moments of silence passed.

"How old are you, anyways?" I asked.

"Eleven," he smirked.

"Hmph," I crossed my arms, then uncrossed them, "Hey, do you want to play with me? I'm so bored!"

"Are you sure that you're ten?"

"Yep!"

We spent the rest of the celebration together.

I was too distracted to even bother asking what the party was for, anyways._  
_

~two months later~

"Mother," I said through clenched teeth, "I would appreciate it if you would not hold my hand _in a public library._"

My mother pouted, "But you're so young! What if you get lost?"

I sweatdropped and swiftly pulled my hand out of mom's grip, "Bye, mom!" I quickly walked away as my mother called out, attracting the attention of the people around her, "Misaki! But - what - oh, fine."

Skipping cheerfully, I glanced at the signs hanging from the ceiling, checking to make sure that I hadn't already passed the _Youth __Fiction_ area. When my gaze lowered, they landed on an oddly familiar boy._  
_

Black hair... glasses...

_Eh, whatever._

Wait! That guy from the party... The Ootori's party. Several weeks ago. What was his name again? I skipped over to him, grabbed a chair, and plopped down right next to him, "Hello!"

His devil eyes glared at me as he hushed me, "We're in a library. Show some respect and shut up."

I blinked.

Standing up, I screamed at the top of my lungs, "MOOOMMMM! THIS BOY IS BEING RUDE TO ME! HE -"

Ootori-san covered my mouth and practically dragged me over to behind a bookshelf. He stopped suddenly and whirled around, "What were you doing?! Are you crazy?!"

I shuddered and took a step back, "But - but - BUT IT WAS TRUE!"

"Can't you be quiet?" he sighed and took a breath, "What was your name again?"

I was about to say my real name, then I remembered what I had told him at the party. _Aki-chan.__  
_

"Aki-chan," I nodded, feeling proud of myself for remembering such a small thing.

He narrowed his eyes, "Where are your parents?"

"My mom?" I stared at him before giving him an answer, "Oh, yeah! She's... uh... somewhere?"

"Again?" he muttered to himself before speaking louder, "Does this kind of situation usually happen to you?"

I looked at him in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"Do you normally tell people your juvenile nickname, then you don't know where your parents are?"

"Hey!" I objected, "I'm not juvenile! How dare you call me that? I -" there was a moment of silence before I asked, "What does juvenile even mean?"

"If you don't know what simple words mean, why are you at a library?" he questioned.

I retreated to a dark corner and sulked, "I know what simple words mean! Juvenile is NOT a simple word!"

"Whatever."

I turned around to glare at him, but as I watched him, I could see the corners of his mouth curled in a very, very tiny smile. I beamed and bounced up to him, "So! Since I forgot and I forget many, many things - what's your name?"

He tilted his head so that a glare gave from his glasses, "Let's make a deal. I'll tell you my name if you tell me your real name."

I thought about it, hand touching my chin and eyebrows furrowed in concentration before bursting out into another smile, "Sure!"

"Kyoya," the black-haired boy smirked triumphantly, pushing his glasses to keep them from sliding off his nose. The thought of his glasses falling off his nose almost made me smile, "Kyoya Ootori."

When I didn't respond right away, he said in an annoyed voice, "So, what about you? What's your real name?"

My eyes met his as I responded.

"Aki-chan!"

A weird, red symbol appeared on his forehead as he glared at me. I smiled, "Do you like reading?"

"Of course," darkly said Kyoya.

"I like reading, too!" I grabbed his hand and started pulling him to the fiction area where I was headed to earlier, "Help me pick out a book!"

I dragged him over to a bookshelf, and began to look at the book titles. I could feel Kyoya glaring at me, but I paid no heed and smiled to myself. It was quiet for a couple of minutes before he tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around, and he held out a thick book.

"Here," he simply said.

I gently took the book, glanced at the unfamiliar title, and flipped through the pages of the book when I realized...

"Oi! This book is in English!"

"I apologize," Kyoya said politely, giving a dark smile, "I didn't realize that you were too dumb to know English already."

I gasped and held a hand to my mouth in horror, "Uwaaah! Kyo-kun is so mean!"

A glare came off his glasses, "Kyo-kun?"

"Yeah!" I smiled brightly, "Cause we're friends, right?"

He didn't respond.

But that was okay.

Later, I checked out the book and returned home with my mother. If only I had realized that day was the start of my friendship with Kyoya Ootori. If only... I had realized that I was on my path to pain and suffering.

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A/N: So, I realize that this was super short, but it was more of an opening/prologue sort of thing? This story is technically a prequel, but it's going to only last for most likely less than ten chapters.

Okay! I hoped you liked this, though this chapter was a bit boring. Next chapter I'm going to spice things up a bit, hopefully. Ja ne!


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